Outline:
1. Unit Price of custom design LCD
2. MOQ of custom design LCD
3. Backlight of custom design LCD
4. Tooling fee for custom design LCD
Before we talk about the factors that influence the price of LCD, we need to know how to get a new design of LCD first.
When some companies want to make new products, these products need an LCD screen. They will need custom designs for LCD.
First, they will have an idea about what they need.
LCD size, working temperature, viewing angle, connection types, LCD frames, need backlight or not, inner symbols and icons, etc.
And all these factors will be talked about below. They are also the most important factors that will influence the price of LCD.
Factors that influence the price of LCD:
The important features are the following:
● Unit Price
● MOQ (minimum order quantity)
● Backlight
● Tooling Fees
Unit Price:
Normally, people have confused about the unit price of custom LCD displays. But it’s easy to know the approximate price of them.
Let’s talk about the factors that will affect the price.
A. Display mode
Generally speaking, let’s take an example with the same size, same thickness LCD. The price from cheap to expensive is TN, HTN, STN, VA, FSTN, DFSTN. Because the viewing angle will be wider from TN to DFSTN.
B. Viewing mode
Viewing modes include Transmissive, Transflective, Reflective.
Here we also treat other factors the same. Size, display mode. Temperature range, etc.
Reflective is cheapest, then transmissive, then transflective.
C. Temperature range
Generally speaking. We divided temperature ranges into 4 tiers.
First, the working temperature is 0 to 50 degrees, storage temperature is -10 to 60 degrees.
Second, the working temperature is -10 to 60 degrees, storage temperature is -20 to 70 degrees.
Third, the working temperature is -20 to 70 degrees, storage temperature is -30 to 80 degrees.
Forth, the working temperature is -30 to 80 degrees, storage temperature is -40 to 90 degrees.
And it’s clear that the price is from low to high. Because the requirements for the liquid crystals are different. The higher and lower temperature you need, it will be more expensive.
D. COG or COB or LCD only
Why we talk about the LCD frame is because it’s an important factor that influences price.
COG means chip on glass, we need to get a suitable IC for it. Because the IC is on glass, it has more requirements for the producing processes. So it will be expensive.
COB means chip on board, there is a lot of space for a big IC to drive the LCD, so the producing requirements are not that fierce.
LCD only is easy to understand the reason. Because we only need to produce the glass and bond the PINs or FPC or conductive tapes on it.
Here we don’t talk about COF because COF is commonly used in TFT screens. And here we talk about monochrome LCD only.
E. Segments it needs to display
It is also easy to understand the meaning of the title. The more segments, the more liquid crystal materials are needed, and the more PINs are needed. So under the same conditions, the more segments, the higher the price.
F. PINs
Actually, this part can be combined with the 5th point. More segments you need, more PINs you will need. Then the price will be higher.
G. Thickness of LCD
Generally speaking, there are 3 types of thicknesses of LCD. There are 1.7mm, 2.0mm, 2.8mm. And the price from low to high is 2.8mm, 2.0mm, 1.7mm. Because the thinner it is, the more difficult it is when producing.
H. LCD size
LCD size is the most important factor that will influence the price of LCD. It’s easy to understand. The bigger it is, the more expensive it is.
MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity):
The reason why there will be MOQ should be explained in more detail.
First, making a new mold to make LCDs will change a whole production line for a new item. A production line includes more than 40 processes. And once it starts running. It will take a few minutes to adjust the whole production line and need to use raw materials to test the preciseness of the production line. It will cost a lot when starting production.
Let’s take an example to explain it more clearly.
Once the production line is running, it will cost $500 to produce 1000 pieces of screens. And customers only need 100 pieces. But it already cost $500 for 100 pieces. That’s why the price less than MOQ will be higher than the price against MOQ.
And once we changed the whole production line for a new item. It also takes some time to change the molds. So it’s also a big cost for that.
Backlight:
Normally, 90% of customers who need LCD will also need backlight. Because only reflective LCDs don’t need backlight.
There will also be a huge difference in the price of the backlight. Under normal circumstances, we divide the backlight into three types. The first very commonly used backlight is directly connected to the LCD and soldered on the motherboard. This backlight does not require a specific structure, and its size only needs to be designed according to the size of the LCD and PCB board. The second is the backlight that is attached to the LCD. Generally, we will help it to design a wall, so that the LCD and the backlight can be better fixed together, so that the entire module structure can be more stable. The third is to add an iron frame to the second one, which can make the structure more stable and help protect the LCD screen.
In addition, the price of backlight is also related to the brightness requirements of customers. Generally speaking, when the size is fixed, the higher the brightness required, the higher the thickness of the backlight will be, because brighter lamp beads are used. If the thickness is fixed, then another way to increase the brightness is to increase the size of the backlight so that more lamp beads can be added.
The last but not the least point is some additional design. The most common is to add positioning columns. The function of the positioning column is to directly fix the backlight on the motherboard. In this way, soldering is not required, which can greatly reduce labor costs. Because the design of the positioning column is more complicated, because it involves the diameter and length of the positioning column, it will also affect the price of the backlight.
There are some other factors that will affect the price of the backlight. For example, the material of the diffuser film, the material of the light guide plate, and so on. Generally speaking, the materials of the diffusion film and light guide plate we use are better. So our backlight display effect is very good, the brightness is also very uniform. Some manufacturers may choose slightly inferior materials. The subtle differences in actual use are difficult to find, but the differences will be obvious after a long time of use. The backlight with slightly inferior materials will become dim and bright. It will not be so uniform. And the brightness of the lamp beads also decays quickly.
Tooling Fees:
All custom designs for LCD displays will need to make a new mold for it. After the mold is confirmed, we will make samples and make mass production against it.
If there are any changes to the icons or the letters in the LCD, it will need to make a new mold for it.
That’s why we need customer’s confirmation before producing samples and mass productions.
And the tooling fee also has big differences between different kinds of LCD and backlights you need.
Tooling fee for LCD from cheap to expensive is TN, HTN, STN, VA, FSTN, DFSTN.
Tooling fee for backlight from cheap to expensive as we discussed, the more complex the frame is, the more expensive it will be.
And tooling fee for PCB board. The bigger and more complex it is, the tooling fee will be higher.
CreateXplay is a professional manufacturer that creates monochrome LCD screens. We provide custom designs for Segment LCD. These LCDs have different sizes, different shapes, and different backlights.
If you want a custom segmented LCD display, then click on the link given below:
https://createxplay.com/monochrome/
